Moments of Time
by SopranoZone
Summary: Oneshot. It's strange, sometimes, how the mind will subconsciously group periods of time together. Pepperony


Moments of Time

It's strange, sometimes, how the mind will subconsciously group periods of time together, creating moments, capturing feelings. Time passes, taking the moments with it, but the way the time felt always stays behind. A month of building your very first circuit board. The first day of being a nerdy little kid all on your own at MIT. That first year without ever seeing your parents again.

Three months in Afghanistan. One minute of watching the man who has forever changed your life die saving you. Three days of waiting to go home. That first 30 seconds of seeing the woman who got you through that hell, once you set foot on American soil again. Ten minutes of a slow dance and an almost kiss before forgetting to get her drink as yet another 5 minutes of photographs and revelations shake your faith.

Five minutes of paralyzing terror as the man who brought you out of your youth _literally_ ripped your heart out of you. Ten minutes of dragging your dying body through your house just so you could save _her_. Three point six minutes of not knowing if you'll get there in time.

Six months of being Iron Man to the public, four of that realizing that the same device you built to save your life is killing you. Ten minutes of trying to force yourself into a 'viking funeral,' only to end up saving the world yet again on the Monaco race track. Three hours of building up your courage to tell her _'I'm dying,'_ only to be shot down in ten seconds flat. Ten hours of realizing it's over and just giving up before some crazy guy in an eye patch offers you a way to a solution. Two hours of hearing your dad's voice after more than 15 years, and realizing you never realized how much he meant to you. A minute of a phone call from a dead guy and realizing the next 40 minutes mean more than you ever realized. A ten second flight to find her. An infinitely short kiss on a rooftop (your mind never did figure out exactly how long that one was, to be honest).

Two months of convincing the woman you've been crazy about for years without knowing it into letting your relationship go public. That one minute of silence while you waited for her answer on bended knee. Three months of agonizing wedding plans where you tried to convince her everything would be easier if you just eloped. An hour before the wedding spent in a panic while your best friend tries unsuccessfully to calm you down, because everything is changing. Another hour of standing across from her, unable to take your eyes off her and realizing that the past 11 years have made you the man you are today.

Four months of bliss, bickering, missions, making love, press conferences and tabloid lawsuits before you realize that even though you're married, things stay the same. Then the 30 seconds when she tells you things really actually _are_ never going to be the same again, and you'll never forget the look on her face. An hour of sitting in the waiting room for that first appointment. Four months of morning sickness. Endless hours of lounging in bed with her, just taking her in.

Six hours of waiting in an uncomfortable hospital chair with her after your best friend's in a training accident, and another 24 hours of agonizing waiting in the same chair a week later when she's admitted for false labor after you come home battered from a mission. Three months of refusing any mission except the most important so you can be at home with her in her mandatory leave. The 15 minutes waiting for Happy to get there when she tells you _it's time_, and then 10 and a half hours at her side as she labors to bring your daughter into the world.

This moment, though; standing here, forehead against your arm pressed to the nursery window as you just stare at Anna Maria Stark wrapped in a soft pink blanket. This moment burns its way into your mind. It's not truly a moment, but a feeling. It goes right there with _I never told got to say goodbye to my parents_ and _I love you, Pepper Potts. _And Tony Stark knows that this means there are more moments to come. And not even time can take them away.


End file.
